JulieG Santorini Plus Nail Art

Hiya! Today is JulieG Santorini from the Cruise Collection. I love periwinkle colors so much, and this one doesn't disappoint in the least. There is a very faint shimmer that you can't really see on the nail, but you can catch it in the bottle. One thing I have to say about these polishes is they are super shiny even without topcoat. This one wasn't even thick like the others. Actually, it seems the 3 in this box were fine. Must have been a fluke, because this one is the quality I'm used to. Ok, on to the pics!

JulieG - Santorini

I decided to try a little dry-brush nail art. It was my first attempt and is obviously not that great, but I thought the idea was cute. It was a little busy, though. So, I thought well how about with a solid accent nail? Or AS and accent nail? And there you have it. Hehe.

Thanks for reading! I hope you're all having a great week. xoxo ~Tabi

NotD: Easy Nail Art

Happy Monday Afternoon! Hope everyone's week started off well. Today, I have some easy but cute nail art. I used Urban Outfitters Slime and Sinful Colors Cream Pink. It's called cream, but it has a pretty little shimmer. As for Slime, I'm pretty sure I mentioned it in a previous post, but the formula sucks. Streaky on the first coat, pulls on the second, and chips so easily. As a matter of fact, you'll see in my pictures that I have a chip on the index finger. How? Well, I painted them late Saturday night so I thought I'd wait until morning for pics in the sunlight. A simple shower (meaning no hair washing) and BOOM! Chip. Yeah. Anywho! On to the pics! ^_^

Dots and Half Moon Accent Nail

Urban Outfitters Slime & Sinful Colors Cream Pink

My Chocolate Lab

So, indirect, direct, and alternate view with a guest appearance by my dog. Haha. I really do love the color of slime. It's a shame that I dread ever using it.

I free-handed the half moon and used a dotting tool for the dots. I dipped once for each nail so the dots got slightly smaller from base to tip. And that's it! I hope you like. Have a fabulous week!

Cuz I'm a Geek

I saw tons of Iron Man nails when 3 came out, but I haven't seen any Star Trek nails. Of course, I'm rarely on the computer on the weekends. I could have just missed them all. Anyway, here are mine. Simple, but unmistakably geek. Haha.

Star Trek Nail Art

 Also, sorry I haven't been blogging like usual. Not only have I been busy, but I haven't been motivated. I have so many other passions and hobbies that I've been ignoring, and I think I just need to find some balance between them all. I hope you all will stick with me. I've even considered just sticking with Facebook and Instagram instead of the blog. What do you guys think?

 Well, I'll be sure to let you know if I make that decision. Have a fabulous day. Xoxo.

Mini Haul & NotD

Okay, so it's more like a micro haul. I spent $4 at the Dollar Tree. (^_^;) But they had some new stuff since I last went...in November. Haha.

A basic black for a buck. How could I pass that up? Plus, I need a new black for stamping.

Look at this beauty! Who doesn't love iridescent glitter? I can't wait to try this one.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of bar glitter, just because they're a nightmare to remove, but it's spring and these were such pretty colors! We'll see if I actually get around to using them before spring is over. Haha. Now for the kicker.

Mylar shreds?! They're so gorgeous! Some of the shreds are kind of big, but can easily be cut. Okay, so this might not be as big of a deal for some of you, but there is something about iridescence that I absolutely love. From bubbles to a crow's feathers, it's just so beautiful to me.

Alright, let's get to the nails. ^_^ I don't know what made me do these. I'm not big on nautical themes or anything, but I just felt like doing something different. I used a striping brush rather than striping tape, so the lines aren't perfect. It was good practice, though.

Nautical Nail Art

Pure Ice French Kiss & Sally Hansen Golden-I

I used Pure Ice French Kiss, Sally Hansen Golden-I and some of the large loose glitters from my November Dollar Tree haul. I kind of had to, since I hadn't used any of it yet. You know, to justify buying more. Haha.

Well, I hope you all are having a good week so far. Thanks for stopping by!

Revealed! My Only Nail Blogging Secret

DISCLAIMER: Though school glue is washable and non-toxic, it still should not be ingested. This method is for swatching and decision making purposes only. I do NOT recommend wearing it for any other reason. It will easily peel and wash off. Use this method at your own risk and discretion.

Alright, as promised I'm going to share my one secret method with you all. Although you may think a disclaimer is a little much, I just want to make sure you all understand that this is not for wearing. However, if you are a nail blogger or have ever matted a mani only to realize that you liked it better the other way, then this method might just change your nail life. Haha...well, maybe. I do ask that you give me proper credit if you share this method. I'm not one of these huge, amazing bloggers, so I would appreciate acknowledgement of this. Like I said, it's the one thing I've got. (^_^;)

PIC HEAVY POST!

So, between the disclaimer and the intro, I'm sure you can figure what I'm talking about. I've always been observant of the less obvious, and ever since I was a kid using school glue as "skin" I've noticed something. Then when the glue basecoat was introduced, I noticed it again. School glue has a matte finish! You can now swatch EVERY polish or mani with a matte finish and never waste your matte topcoat! However, if you prefer the matte finish, then you will need to add an actual matte topcoat for daily wear. As stated above, this will peel very easily. It is in NO way permanent, nor is it a replacement for matte topcoats.

You might be wondering how good this method could actually be. So, here are a BUNCH of pics and you can decide for yourself. One tip, use the glue method before a topcoat.

Essence Grey-t to Be Here

Essence Grey-t to Be Here with Matte Finish

Pointer = Glue/Middle = Matte Topcoat

Can You tell tell the difference?

Also, since I didn't swatch it before, here's Urban Outfitters Blue Jeans. It looks very purple in the bottle and much more blurple in real life.

Urban Outfitters Blue Jeans Polish - Indoor Lighting

Urban Outfitters Blue Jeans Polish - Florescent Lighting

Glued up. ^_^

Whoops, caught some dust! haha

All peeled off.

Revlon Heavenly

Blue Jeans against my blue jeans. >_<

Ended up wearing it with an accent nail of Revlon Heavenly. LOVE! Can't believe it took me this long to use it. I was up so late that I didn't "matte" it again after adding Heavenly.

I hope you guys get some use out of this little tip of mine! Please let me know how it works for you.

NotD and Swatch

Well hello there! I know my posts have been scarce, but work has been crazy and I just don't have energy for anything by the time I've taken care of dinner and such. I do apologize though. I really miss you all! I will say, it's easier for me to post a quick pic on Instagram. This is not just for nails, but feel free to follow me.

Now, on to the polish! You all might remember my Urban Outfitters haul. Well, there's a reason I don't buy polish that's "displayed" in bins (basically). One was crusted shut and that's when I noticed it wasn't quite full. They have tester bottles, so this kind of peeved me. But not a biggie.

The colors were pretty, and they had a nice variety of glitters that were comparable to indies. Application, however, was streaky and overall disappointing. I would not pay $5 for these on the norm.

Ok, so here's Cherry Tomato. This red is super bright and almost leans toward red-orange in real life. Not my color at all, but my intent was for nail art anyway.

Urban Outfitters Cherry Tomato

Next is Slime, which looks much more chartreuse in the bottle, and an accent nail of Mystic layered over Blue Jeans. Sorry, I didn't swatch Blue Jeans, but I'm sure I'll be using it a lot. Beautiful color but more purple than anything.

Urban Outfitters Mystic

Urban Outfitters Slime

That's all for now. I hope this helped if any of you are picky about how much you spend on polish.

Two Halo Hues & V-day Design

Well, I was going to do a swatch and design for each color. Instead, I have two swatches and a Valentine's design for you. First up is Miss Bliss, the pretty pink. I tried to enlarge the photo for you all, but it did detract from the quality a little. Nothing, however can hide that amazing holographic effect.

Color Club Miss Bliss

Next is Eternal Beauty, my new favorite polish! I love purple and this is so gorgeous. I couldn't stop staring at my nails today. We didn't have the same sunshine as the day I wore the pink, but I still caught a little.

Color Club Eternal Beauty

Yesterday, my niece asked me to paint her nails with a Valentine's design for school this week. I let her pick everything: colors, stamping designs, etc. In the process, I came up with a little idea. I used Bundle Monster plate BM-209 to create a design that looks like music flowing. Then I used a faux-nad plate m2 and added a little stick on one of the hearts to make it look like a musical note. So, kind of like a love song.

That's it. I kept it simple. Haha. Well, I hope everyone's week is off to a great start. See ya later!

NotD: First Dotticure and...

Another Liebster Nomination! I'd like to thank Ruby Tips & Toes for the nomination. I'd love to go through the questions, but the 11 random facts and 11 blogs would be hard, since I've already been nominated before. So, I thank you, but will have to pass this time. I also want to apologize for being a little absent recently. The beginning of the year always seems to be hectic. Plus, I think my daughter is going through some growing pains. Honestly, I'm torn, too. I love my little girl, but I'm also glad she's starting to do more on her own. Anyway, I'm getting off track. Haha.

Okay, I know it's crazy that this is my first dotticure. Technically, it's just my first full dotticure done with actual dotting tools. I've had dots on a couple nails done with alternative tools, but not a full mani. So, here it is.

Spoiled by Wet n Wild Pumping Gas (Brown)

I used Sinful Colors Ocean Side, a pretty smoky blue, and Spoiled by Wet n Wild Pumping Gas, a yummy looking cocoa brown, as the accent nail color. I liked the subtlety of this color combination. Sometimes, I don't feel like a drastically different accent nail.

Sinful Colors Ocean Side (Blue)

This is in florescent light. Since the colors were pretty reserved, I added a pop of fun with blue rhinestones on the accent nails for some of the dots. I really like how it turned out.

And the alternate perspective. I don't know why my fingers look so crooked. Haha.

That's all for this post. Hope you all have a wonderful start to the week. (^_^)

MOvember & My Very First Blog Post

Well, I've done it. I've started a nail blog, and today is my first post. I'm still very new to the nail art world, so please keep that in mind as I attempt and probably fail before I get better. I'm starting simple today with an idea brought up by Teen Polish Junkie: Movember.

For those of you that don't know, November is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and the ribbon color is blue. *Edited: I had to come back and spell mustache with the "o" otherwise MOvember wouldn't make sense. Hehe.* The same way we polish lovin' ladies did pink manis for BCA, men stop shaving their moustaches for PCA and call it Movember. My husband and his co-workers decided to do this and Teen Polish Junkie thought we could show our support with moustache manis.

So, without further ado, here is my first moustache mani for Movember:

For this mani I used Sinful Colors in Cinderella, a beautiful baby blue with a pink holo shimmer, and Wet n Wild in Ebony Hates Chris. Stinks that it streaked. Anyone have any tips to avoid that?

I don't have a great camera or a light box so I tried to get a variety of pics. Here's one with a shadow to show the color a little better:

And here's one where I attempted to show the shimmer:

Last but not least, my right hand:

I'm showing my right hand because my husband painted that moustache. He's very supportive of my little nail hobby and was the first one to encourage me to start this blog. He called this the "Shahid Khan."  For those of you who aren't into football, he's the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and is well known for his mustache. *Disclaimer: We aren't Jags fans. My husband would never let me live it down if I didn't put that in. LoL. Steelers, baby!

So, there you have it. If you all want to join us in this little Movember adventure, feel free to share your pics on my Facebook page.

Thanks! I hope you'll come back to see more newbie mani adventures. ^_^